USA Southern Tier Part 2

Day 1. Baton Rouge – New Roads (40 miles)

In Feb-Mar 2019 we cycled c.1,050 miles from San Augustine, Florida to New Orleans in Louisiana, part of Adventure Cycling’s Trans America Southern Tier route. Well, we’re back, and have the first, dead flat, 40 miles of Part 2 under our belts. Our destination for this trip is El Paso on the border of Texas and New Mexico; at least 1,300 miles.

It is glorious to be back in shorts and T shirts with the sun on our skin. Spring is definitely here with lots of birdsong, roadside flowers and deciduous trees just showing hints of green. The locals were busy mowing lawns this Sunday morning. Some of the farmers already have lush fields of grass and red clover cut for hay/silage.

We have been very touched by the kindness of the people here. Gavin was bought a beer last night and a lorry driver drove behind us at cycling pace as we crossed the Mississippi on the Huey P Long bridge this afternoon. There was no shoulder to ride on so he kept us safe from speeding traffic which was forced into the outside lane. Thereafter, we followed the mighty river upstream on quiet rural roads. We stopped at a roadside cabin for a ‘snowball’ (fruit flavoured, finely crushed, ice with ice cream in the middle), the lovely lady, so impressed with our trip and by way of welcome to the US refused to let us pay.

So far it is 2-1 to Gavin in the Alligator spotting competition.